Recycled wool, also known as rag wool or shoddy is any

woollen Woolen (American English) or woollen (Commonwealth English) is a type of yarn made from carded wool. Woolen yarn is soft, light, stretchy, and full of air. It is thus a good insulator, and makes a good knitting yarn. Woolen yarn is in contrast t ...

textile Textile is an Hyponymy and hypernymy, umbrella term that includes various Fiber, fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, Staple (textiles)#Filament fiber, filaments, Thread (yarn), threads, and different types of #Fabric, fabric. ...

yarn Yarn is a long continuous length of interlocked fibres, used in sewing, crocheting, knitting, weaving, embroidery, ropemaking, and the production of textiles. '' Thread'' is a type of yarn intended for sewing by hand or machine. Modern ...

made by shredding existing fabric and re-spinning the resulting fibres. Textile recycling is an important mechanism for reducing the need for raw

wool Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and other mammals, especially goats, rabbits, and camelids. The term may also refer to inorganic materials, such as mineral wool and glass wool, that have some properties similar to animal w ...

in manufacturing. Shoddy was invented by Benjamin Law of

Batley Batley is a market town in the Kirklees district, in West Yorkshire, England, south-west of Leeds, north-west of Wakefield and Dewsbury, south-east of Bradford and north-east of Huddersfield, in the Heavy Woollen District. In 2011, the popu ...

in 1813. It was the dominant industry of Batley and neighbouring towns in the

West Riding of Yorkshire The West Riding of Yorkshire was one of three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the riding was an administrative county named County of York, West Riding. The Lord Lieutenant of the West Riding of Yorkshire, lieu ...

, known as the

Heavy Woollen District The Heavy Woollen District is a region of textile-focused industrial development in West Yorkshire, England. It acquired the name because of the heavyweight cloth manufactured there from the early 19th century. The district is made up of parts o ...

, throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries. Following its decline in the United Kingdom, the centre of the shoddy trade shifted to the city of

Panipat Panipat () is an industrial , located 95 km north of Delhi and 169 km south of Chandigarh on NH-44 in Panipat district, Haryana, India. It is famous for three major battles fought in 1526, 1556 and 1761. The city is also known as ...

in India. Efforts have been made to revive the British recycled wool industry in the 21st century.

Terminology

Historically, recycled wool products were called ''rag wool''. Manufacturers distinguished among three main categories of rag wool: * ''Shoddy'' – made from loosely woven or "soft" textiles that could be pulled apart relatively easily; * ''Mungo'' – made from "hard" fabrics such as

felts Felt is a textile that is produced by matting, condensing, and pressing fibers together. Felt can be made of natural fibers such as wool or animal fur, or from synthetic fibers such as petroleum-based acrylic or acrylonitrile or wood pulp–ba ...

, that were harder to disintegrate but resulted in a finer product; * ''Extract'' – made from the wool portion of cotton/wool blended fabrics. In practice, few outside the industry were aware of these distinctions, even when rag wool was widely used. The common name was ''shoddy'', which became a generalised term for poor quality goods. It is still used as a technical term for recycled wool within the industry. Regulators in the United States make a distinction between ''reprocessed wool'', which is made from manufactured wool products that were never used by the consumer, and ''reused wool'', which the consumer has used.Robert E. Freer
"The Wool Products Labeling Act of 1939."
''Temple Law Quarterly.'' 20.1 (July 1946). p. 47. Reprinted at ftc.gov. Retrieved 1 May 2016. Other bodies refer to these as ''pre-consumer'' and ''post-consumer'' waste material. The terms ''virgin wool'' and ''new wool'' are used to distinguish newly-produced, never-used wool from shoddy.

References

{{Reflist Wool Recycling Products introduced in 1813